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"You and I are opposite sides of the same coin. When we face each other, we can finally see our true selves. There may be a resemblance, but we'll never face the same direction."


  • 1917 - The Alien Invasion DX takes place in World War I, where in the middle of the fighting an Alien Invasion occurs, wiping out most of humanity's army. Your hero managed to thwart the invasion, and realize the alien invaders to be a warlike race who only knows chaos and destruction; but two decades after saving the world, humanity has rebuilt enough for World War II to happen just like real life. You then remark if humans are any different from the aliens that nearly destroyed us before, and what you saved was actually worth saving.
  • Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War makes use of this, providing the Page Quote above. Regardless of which Ace Style you choose for Cypher during the events of the game, be it Mercenary, Soldier, or Knight, Pixy will say that you and him are alike, though your goals will always put him at opposition to him.
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • In Assassin's Creed, mad executioner Majd Addin attempts to pull this on Altair, explaining that they aren't so different and that he would have done the same were he in Addin's position. Altair's response is to agree that indeed, he once may have, until he discovered what awaits such people - demonstrated by stabbing Addin in the neck.
    • In Assassin's Creed II, the first mark (who got Ezio's father and brothers executed) makes the excuse, "You would have done the same...to save the ones you love." Ezio agrees... so he goes through with the killing.
    • Averted in Assassin's Creed III as one of the targets, Thomas Hickey, says that he and Connor are nothing alike, as he puts it, Connor is a type of guy who is always chasing butterflies while he is a type of guy who likes to have a beer in one hand and a titty in another.
    • In Assassin's Creed Rogue, Liam and Louis argue that the Templars are evil because they are using Precursor artifacts to manipulate world politics and accumulate power. Shay asks, quite sarcastically, how that is different from the Assassin plan of using Precursor artifacts to manipulate world politics and accumulate power.
  • In Asura's Wrath, Augus claims this is true with him and Asura during the fight against him. Defied by Asura, they couldn't be more different since Asura is actually fighting for someone he loves rather than for its own sake and that is what gives him the strength to defeat Augus in the end, with Augus contently conceding to said-point after the fact.
  • Baldur's Gate: In an example with two companions, Korgan makes this argument to Valygar, since both are kinslayers. Valygar points out that his own motivation was to stop his crazed mother from killing people with Black Magic, while Korgan went on a murder spree to be the sole claimant to an inheritance.
    Korgan: Killing is killing, my lanky friend. Sugar-coat it all ye like but when we go to family reunions we both go alone.
  • There's one between Lamb and Ryan in BioShock 2. Despite having polar opposite ideologies, both are willing to sacrifice their underlings to achieve their goals and both follow a very similar methodology — a thing Lamb calls him out on in a debate:
    Andrew Ryan: Religious rights, Doctor? You are free to kneel before whatever tribal fetish you favor in the comfort of your own home. But in Rapture, liberty is our only law — A man's only duty is to himself. To imply otherwise, therefore, is criminal.
    Sofia Lamb: Ask yourself, Andrew — What is your "Great Chain of Progress" but a faith? The chain is a symbol for an irrational force, guiding us towards ascension — no less mystic than the crucifixes you seize and burn!
  • BlazBlue:
    • When Arakune and Hakumen meet in the Arcade, the latter tells the former that they are quite similar down inside.
    • In Teach Me, Ms. Litchi!, Litchi notes that "[Kokonoe and Taokaka]'re more alike than they seem. There's only a thin line between genius and... Tao."
  • Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly:
    • If the Barista gives Myrtle the wrong drink twice on her first visit, she'll get into an argument with Lucas regarding Aqua breaking her trust with her. She then tells the Barista that Lucas is a "weirder version of Freya" because of his nosy chattiness, to his confusion because he hasn't met her.
    • On Lucas's third visit, he tells the others that he plans to turn his prank show into a talent showcase segment so he can support the prejudiced like Riona in achieving their dreams, much like he was when he was rising to fame as an influencer. Riona faces cyberbullying for being a banshee who's believed to only bring bad luck, while Lucas's satyr race is stereotyped as reckless party animals. This is why he wants to apologize to her for accidentally hurting her feelings in his misguided attempt to help her overcome her anxiety in becoming an opera singer amidst the racism.
  • Cyberpunk 2077. A rather light-hearted example comes early on, when V expresses surprise at Jackie's fondness for Szechuan food. Jackie points out that noodles, synthbeef and chili are pretty much what he grew up eating.
  • Days Gone: Deacon comments on the oddness of the Militia taking the military trappings they've surrounded themselves with so seriously, with uniforms and salutes and orders and forms, when they really aren't much more than another gang of survivors. Lisa counters that the Mongrels were exactly the same, giving each other titles like "President", "Road Captain" and "sergeant-at-arms" and wearing identical jackets with patches to denote position and rank... but the Militia aren't pretending to be anti-authoritarian rebels. Deacon begrudgingly acknowledges the point.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II: If Ifan is the player character, he can call out an assassin for murdering a nobleman for a cover identity, causing the nobleman to linger as a Vengeful Ghost. The assassin, a former comrade of Ifan's, flatly asks how many ghosts Ifan has left in his wake.
  • DmC: Devil May Cry: Ultimately, both Mundus and Vergil see humans as subjects to be ruled. Dante even points this out: when Vergil expresses his desire to rule humanity, Dante responds "...you mean, like Mundus."
  • Dying Light taunts the player for evil deeds they probably didn't even notice they were committing. Protagonist Kyle Crane meets a crooked politician who offers to help him escape the city and and give him a cut of his $25 million stash. When Crane asks if the money actually belongs to him, the politician brushes it off saying that the people it belonged to are zombies now, "... And besides, don't tell me you've never helped yourself to the wallet of a biter you killed." Err... maybe a few... thousand...
  • In Eastern Exorcist, the hero Lu Yun-chuan convinces his comrades to spare an unarmed, innocent hulijing by telling them "they'll be no different from the demons" if they kill her.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • In Morrowind, Vivec clearly was never a big fan of the Dwemer. As one of Nerevar's councilors, Vivec believed that peace could not be had between the Chimer and Dwemer. He later urged Nerevar to make war on the Dwemer when evidence was brought forth that showed they were in possession of the Heart of Lorkhan and were attempting to tap into its power. However, he would later draw his own divine powers from the Heart and the A God Am I-type response he gives if you question his past actions is nearly identical to the one he attributes to the Dwemer Architect Kagrenac when Nerevar originally questioned him about the Heart in The Battle of Red Mountain:
    Vivec: "Can you, mortal, presume to judge the actions and motives of a god?"
    Kagrenac (per Vivec): "But Kagrenac took great offense, and asked whom Nerevar thought he was, that he might presume to judge the affairs of the Dwemer."
    • Skyrim: A very subtle one when the player is talking to Paarthurnax, a dragon who has overcome his inherent nature to kill and conquer and destroy through thousands of years of meditation and self control. He points out that all dragons have an inherent desire to be essentially destructive bastards - and then comments that you, the player, being Dragonborn and thus possessing the soul of a dragon, likely have the same urges to kill and steal and destroy, just like all the dragons you've been killing along the way.
  • In Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, your first mission is to defeat a raider named Horus who is exploiting tribals. When on the brink of death, Horus will admit he underestimated you, but defiantly tell you that the Brotherhood of Steel is no different than the raiders, since both "take what (they) want from these savages." Considering that the Brotherhood demands resources and recruits from those they help, Horus isn't wrong.
  • In Far Cry 4, Pagan Min gives Ajay one that comes with a good dose of Villain Has a Point if you choose to hear him out during the final mission:
    Pagan Min: But then I realized, I was only using Lakshmana's death as an excuse to do whatever I wanted to do. Just as you use those ashes to do whatever you want to do. God damn if it isn't fun.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children himself lampshades that Cloud knows all about being Sephiroth's puppet, confused and unsure of what to do and who he really is.
    • In Dirge of Cerberus, when Vincent impales Azul the Cerulean on his own cannon by hurling it through his torso, Azul comments that Vincent, possessed by Chaos, is an even more of a beast than he is.
    • Garland from Dissidia Final Fantasy tells the Warrior of Light that they are both pawns in the endless cycle of battle. The warrior, however argues that Garland is a man who's given in to despair, whereas he has not.
    • Lightning and Fang in Final Fantasy XIII have a 'not so different' moment in Palumpolum, and the Datalog entry actually uses the phrase.
    • In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, just before the fight with Mateus, the final Totema, Mateus takes on the form of Marche's friends in order to shake Marche's resolve to return Ivalice to normal. While taking the form of Mewt, who's responsible for changing the world, Mateus asks Marche whether his father will return if he goes home, then notes that he understands how lonely Marche feels. Since Marche's father is away and his mother is busy caring for Doned, while Mewt's mother is dead and his father is preoccupied with his own grief(and The Alcoholic in the original Japanese), it's not only an accurate observation, but also sounds like something the real Mewt would naturally say to Marche.
  • Fire Emblem has some notable examples:
    • In Fire Emblem Fates, the Nohrian and Hoshidan royal families are not so different from each other. They both have their own positive traits and troubles, and they both have a serious older brother, an older sister with some level of devotion to Corrin, an easily-jealous younger brother, and a younger sister who idolizes her older siblings. Corrin even lampshades it in regards to Xander and Ryoma at one point in the Conquest path.
      Corrin: It's just that, despite your differences, the two of you are quite similar in some ways.
    • Also from Fates, while Takumi and Leo, Corrin's younger brothers from Hoshido and Nohr, respectively, can't stand each other at first, the rest of their families note how similar they are. The two of them resent those comparisons at first, but then realize they have similar tastes in food (Takumi likes miso soup while Leo likes stew), and hobbies(Takumi plays shogi and Leo plays chess), and bond over those similarities.
    • In the Azure Moon route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, this happens when Byleth confronts Dimitri over his growing obsession with revenge against Edelgard for supposedly causing the deaths of his father, stepmother and friend Glenn in the Tragedy of Duscur, an event that led to the persecution of the people of Duscur, including Dimitr's retainer Dedue. Dimitri then asks if Byleth would let the people who took everything from them go unpunished, reminding Byleth of how they sought vengeance against the person who killed Byleth's father Jeralt before the Time Skip. Byleth can agree with Dimitri, but regardless of what Byleth says, Dimitri will assert, "We're the same, you and I."
    • In Chapter 3 of Three Houses, the player will be tasked with helping to put down a rebellion by Lord Lonato, who is seeking revenge on the church for his son's execution. After the battle, the other characters will be appalled by how Lonato embarked on a crusade of revenge that got himself and the commoners who served him killed. Edelgard sympathizes, but remarks that someday, she, too, will be like Lonato, in that she must risk the lives of her subjects when fighting wars. Edelgard ultimately declares war on the Church of Seiros in order to bring about a world without Crests.
    • At the end of Book V of Fire Emblem Heroes, Eitri, the Arc Villain, leaves a video recording for the Summoner. Eitri is wholly unapologetic for her crimes, including abusing the power of summoning, but then says that the Summoner, who is able to command legendary heroes, kings, the dead and even the gods, is self-righteous to think they are any different from her.
    • In Fire Emblem Engage, Alcryst's retainers Lapis and Citrinne seem to be polar opposites- Lapis is a swordswoman who comes from a farm, while Citrinne is a mage who is an extremely wealthy relative of Alcryst's. However, Citrinne observes that she and Lapis have one important thing in common- just as Lapis feels as though her humbler origins hold her back, Citrinne feels the same way about her lack of physical strength.
  • Grand Theft Auto:
    • In Grand Theft Auto IV, Niko is driven for revenge against the guy who sold out him and his friends for $1,000. When he finally confronts the guy, Darko Brevic, he is asked how much he charges to kill someone. It seems that Niko knows that Darko is right as it shows in his choices: if he pulls the trigger on the guy, he feels empty and unsettled; if he doesn't and lets Darko go, Niko still feels angry but also a little bit better at the same time, since Darko is in a very, very sorry state and will continue to live on in suffering.
    • In V, should you decide to kill Trevor, Michael will start ranting, attempting to justifying Trevor's death. Michael starts acting a little unhinged during the rant. Not so different indeed.
  • In Hotline Miami, Richter (the rat-masked assassin who was sent to murder Jacket and his girlfriend) says this to a vengeful Jacket upon being confronted by him during the "Assault" chapter. However, it's more of a passive confession than a taunt.
  • Inazuma Eleven:
    • When Endou goes to Kidou's house, he discovers that he has more in common with his former rival than he thought and points out that they're the same. Kidou shows him an old soccer magazine, which is the only thing that was saved from his parents when they died in a plane crash and tells him that that's why he started to play soccer. Endou tells him that he lost his grandfather (though he died or not before he was born) and he started to play soccer after he read his secret notebooks.
    • Fidio invokes this with Big Bad/Demoted to Dragon Kageyama and tells him that the reason why he continued to be involved with soccer, despite claiming to hate it, is for the same reason why Fidio continued to play it, he loved his father and his play. Both of their fathers were eeply upset about losing a soccer championship, although Kageyama Tougo took it worse than Fidio's father.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Master Xehanort calls Master Eraqus out for being too Knight Templar with Light, while Eraqus calls Xehanort out for being The Unfettered with Darkness.
  • In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the final battle includes Raziel confronting Kain about raising his vampire lieutenants from the corpses of prominent Sarafan (vampire hunters):
    Raziel: The Sarafan were saviours, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we represent! My eyes are open, Kain... I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse!
    Kain: You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it. You think the Sarafan were noble? Altruistic? (laughs) Oh, don't be simple. Their agenda was the same as ours!
    • Raziel also uses this as part of a "Reason You Suck" Speech against the Elder God in Defiance:
      Raziel: We both know what you truly are. You're no better than the vampires you so despise. A voracious parasite, masking its hunger within shrouds of righteousness!
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has Rean admit that he and his biological father, Osborne, have a lot more in common than they think as everything that Rean has done in his life, Osborne did the same. More humorously, they're also both very dense with women.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Malefor starts his Break Them by Talking like this at the end of the game. Given he's the original Purple Dragon and is heavily implied to be a Fallen Hero, his argument may be valid.
    Malefor: Such determination to get here. It seems we share other qualities besides our color.
  • Mass Effect:
    • Mass Effect:
      • Early on, Anderson will tell Shepard that Saren is so ruthless and twisted he never looks for alternatives to killing, and will sacrifice innocents without a second (or even first) thought. A Renegade Shepard will comment that they'd do the exact same thing. Later story developments on Feros and the "Bring Down The Sky" even have Renegade Shepard put deed into practice, gunning down the entire brainwashed population of Zhu's Hope even after being offered several chances to take an alternative decision.
      • Speaking of "Bring Down The Sky", Balak tries pulling on of these on Shepard if they sacrifice his hostages to chase after him, but Shepard has absolutely none of it.
        Balak: Who's the real terrorist here?
        Shepard: You. (*BANG*) But you're dead.
    • Mass Effect 2:
      • In the DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker, the Spectre Tela Vasir, in her dying breath, will call Shepard out for condemning her for being a Shadow Broker hitman, when Shepard works for the terrorist organization Cerberus. She'll even point out that Cerberus did experiments on Sole Survivor Shepard's own squad.
      • There's also Nassana Dantius, an amoral asari politician and businesswoman who's been targeted by Thane Krios for assassination. To secure her building, she hired dozens of Eclipse mercenaries and, when things got desperate, ordered the many salarian construction workers killed, resulting in a massacre of unarmed workers who posed no threat. When Shepard finally makes it to Dantius' office, the asari bitterly claims that the Commander has killed countless people and is no better than her. A Paragon dialogue option from Shepard can refute this by telling Dantius that she kills people because she thinks they are beneath her, whereas Shepard kills people who give him/her no choice.
    • Mass Effect 3:
      • Han'Gerrel, despite being an "ally", pulls this on you as well. At the end of the Geth Dreadnought mission, he starts firing on it the moment its barriers go down, even though your team is still on board; when you get back, whether or not you punch him in the stomach, he tells you that if the world being reclaimed in this battle was Earth, you'd be right on board with a little friendly fire. In the Destroy ending, he's right - you're willing to sacrifice, at the very least, your friend EDI, and possibly the entire geth culture if you ensured their survival, to take out the Reapers. You may even have sacrificed the geth and another friend, Legion, to preserve the quarians.
  • Pulled on Max Payne by himself in usual Self Deprecatiing style in the third game, where he considers how the Cracha Preto are gunmen on a payroll and wonders if that's all he is.
  • In Mega Man Zero 4, Dr. Weil desperately bluffs Zero and tries to convince him that killing Weil would be stooping to his level of villainy. In a rare example for this trope, Zero ''agrees'' with him, saying he never thought of himself as a hero to begin with, and kills him anyway.
  • Done rather sadly in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, where Mega Man's solo ending had Dr. Wily pointing out Mega Man's senseless destruction of robots in the act of peace for humans and robots. This puts Mega Man in guilt long enough for Wily to escape by the time he is cheered up by his friends.
  • In Mega Man Star Force, with Mega Man Geo-Omega (the protagonist, and a good guy) telling Harp Note that he is just like her, in an effort to get her to join forces with him. Not only does it work, but it is actually true as both of them have previously lost a parent.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Big Boss, an antagonist whose ideology of perpetual, honourable warfare lingers on through his unkillable son, Liquid Snake. It all seems the usual completely bonkers nonsense, until you're put into his shoes at the start of the third game and get to see what he went through before he formed the Foxhound unit and started trying to create a military nation to leave soldiers free to do battle. He suffers through the same betrayals and manipulation that the series protagonist, Solid Snake, has gone through, and at the end is just as alienated and bitter. It leaves a potent, unstated message about how someone's past experiences don't control their future.
    • A clearer example is towards the end of the first Metal Gear Solid. Liquid is talking about bringing about his father's vision of a return to warfare. When Snake claims that he doesn't want that kind of a world, Liquid's response:
      Liquid: So why are you here, then? Why do you continue to follow your orders while you superiors betray you? Why did you come here? (Snake fails to answer.) Well... I'll tell you then. You enjoy all the killing, that's why.
    • Psycho Mantis does give a similar statement to Solid Snake. Well, sort of...
      Psycho Mantis: I've seen true evil. You, Snake. You're just like the Boss... no, you're worse.
    • A more direct use of this was shortly after Psycho Mantis revealed what he did to the village:
      Solid Snake: Are you saying you burned your village down to bury your past?
      Psycho Mantis: I see that you...have suffered the same trauma. (Mantis laughs feebly.) We are truly the same, you and I... The world is a more interesting place... with people like you in it. I never agreed with the Boss's revolution. His...dreams of world conquest do not interest me. I just wanted an excuse to kill as many people as I could.
    • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has most of the villains relating themselves to Raiden. The Final Boss in particular directly commends him for his Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! attitude, which he sees as a proud, glowing example of his own anarchist Might Makes Right ideals. They even work it into the lyrics of his battle theme.
      "Standing here, I realize, you are just like me trying to make history."
      "I've carved my own path, you've followed your wrath, but maybe we're both the same."
  • My Child Lebensborn: One journal entry points out that both the Germans who valued the child and the Norwegians who are ostracizing the child are thinking of genes the same way, one group thinking those carried by the child are inherently good and another considering them inherently bad. (The Norwegians believe that propensity for creating another Nazi Germany is In the Blood).
  • Several instances of this in the Nintendo Wars series, to the point that it feels like a theme to be touched upon, given the military-centered tone:
    • In Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, there are a few main missions in which this notion is raised; the most significant is Yellow Comet CO Sonja's mission "A Mirror Darkly", where, after the fact, Black Hole CO Lash accuses Sonja of enjoying warfare just as much as she does, as though it were a game of chess. Try as she may, Sonja doesn't have a good response to provide for this. In the same game, in Blue Moon CO Grit's campaign mission "Tanks!!!" Black Hole CO Adder extends an invitation to Grit to defect to the Black Hole Army, on the idea that Grit didn't personally have any particular stake in which countries owned what territories. Grit concedes that Adder is correct on that point, but rebuffs this offer on the grounds that Black Hole had destroyed entire cities, and takes issue with their mistreatment of the citizens.
    • The ending of Advance Wars: Dual Strike consists primarily of a "Not So Different" Remark by the defeated Big Bad, complete with If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!. The player is then given the choice of how to deal with the defeated and now helpless Big Bad. Of course, if you don't have the heart to go through with it, Hawke does.
    • Similarly in the Darker and Edgier Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, the defeated Admiral Greyfield tells Lin she'll be just as bad as him if she kills him, although in this case, he's just deliberately invoking the trope in a panicked and desperate attempt to save his own life. She admits that he's completely right, then shoots him anyway.
    • Similarly, Waylon does this to Will in their final battle. Will admits it, but informs Waylon that this doesn't give him the moral high ground.
  • No More Heroes features this as part of Travis' encounter with Bad Girl. After killing his way through a colorful cast of killers up the UAA's ranks, Travis finds himself disgusted by how — unlike his previous targets, who had some sympathetic philosophies or endearing quirks to explain away their bloody lifestyles — Bad Girl has nothing to show for her psychopathic bloodlust, saying to her face "You're no assassin, you're just a perverted killing maniac." Bad Girl retorts with this logic, followed by a short, but furious "The Reason You Suck" Speech calling out his attempt to posture himself as being morally superior considering all the heads he's been cutting off.
  • In Oni, at the end of the Rooftops sequence's ninja bossfight, the main character exclaims that she has nothing in common with him - then breaks his neck with her boot.
    Mukade: Does your blood burn when you kill? Mine does.
    Konoko: Stop it...
    Mukade: We writhe inside as we are torn apart to make way for what we will become. Surrender to it... Let the bliss of oblivion free you all your doubts and fears!
    Konoko: You're one of Muro's thugs, nothing more!
    Mukade: (laughs) We shall see...
    (Konoko beats the crap out of Mukade)
    Konoko: (thinking) Griffin encouraged me not to look too deeply into my past. Seems like there was a lot he didn't want me to know... I could feel the ninja and I know he could feel me. Why? What am I becoming? Are we the same...? No, I have nothing in common with him. (kills Mukade) (aloud) Nothing!
  • Eve in Parasite Eve tries to break Aya by telling her that both of them have the same parasite energy powers, thus they are very much alike and Aya should join her to rule the world. Aya, who is afraid of her newly awoken powers, denies Eve's comparisons out of anger and confusion and naturally refuses to join her side. Once Aya becomes less afraid of her powers and grows more determined, she becomes more confident in herself and tells Eve that the only similarity they share is their powers and hers have evolved to get rid of Eve.
  • Persona 3:
    • Shinjiro pretty much tells this to Ken when Ken tells Shinjiro that he's going to kill him to avenge his mother, who died when Shinjiro accidentally lost control of his Persona. Shinjiro tells Ken that if he goes through with killing him, he'll become what Shinji was to him and regret it later on in life.
    • Yukari's Social Link involves her dealing with her resentment toward her mother, who, traumatized by losing her husband 10 years before the start of the game, ended up in shallow relationships and neglected her daughter. In the female protagonist route, Yukari gets upset after the female protagonist nearly gets hit by a car while protecting Yukari and later admits that she understands how her mother feels. This becomes reinforced in The Answer, when Yukari is willing to turn back time and risk the end of the world in an effort to undo the death of the protagonist, for whom she is the Implied Love Interest.
      Yukari: I was afraid of losing someone close to me... So I tried to avoid becoming close to anyone... My mom just wanted to forget that fear. She's weak, but I won't look down on her... My mom and I are the same after all...
  • Portal: GLaDOS compares herself to Chell when trying to shame her for attacking GLaDOS in self-defense. "The difference between us is that I can feel pain..."
  • Portal 2: "We're a lot alike, you and I. You tested me. I tested you. You killed me. I- oh, no, wait. I guess I haven't killed you yet. Well. Food for thought."
  • A heroic version comes up in Project × Zone when players pair up Kurt Irving and Riela Marceris with Sanger Zonvolt when the latter comments that the Nameless squadron isn't any different from the Kurogane crew.
  • In Radiant Historia, Stocke realizes that he likely would have turned out like Heiss if he had not found friends to give him hope in the future.
  • Re:Kuroi: In the ending, Marie learns that Kaito is looking for Noelle for the sake of keeping track of anything that could expose that he transformed her into a monster rather than to save her. She states that Kaito is similar to her in being selfish and deceiving their friends.
  • Red Dead Redemption: During Nigel West Dickens's missions, John Marston frequently grouses about the Snake Oil Salesman and how he cheats people out of their money. Dickens never hesitates to point out that Marston robbed people of their money at gunpoint, and refuses to let Marston get away with his fumbling Robin Hood defense.
  • Red Dead Redemption II:
    • Dutch tells Leviticus Cornwell that both of them kill and rob, though Cornwell does it indiscriminately while Dutch picks and chooses who he wants to rob and kill.
    • Arthur is annoyed by the talkative, bragging, lively Sean but both Dutch and Hosea comment that Arthur was a lot like Sean at that age.
  • In Ruined King, during a conversation, Pyke notes that he and Miss Fortune both share the same deep hunger for revenge. Miss Fortune agrees, going even further to say that she too has a list of people who wronged her not unlike him.
  • Sly Cooper:
    • This exchange right before the boss fight with Panda King in the first game:
      Panda King: Why should you care if I bury a few worthless villages in snow? You are a thief, just like me.
      Sly: No that's only half true. I am a thief — from a long line of master thieves. While you... You're just a frustrated fireworks artist turned homicidal pyromaniac!
  • Sonic Adventure's theme song, "Open Your Heart", has Sonic proclaim this of himself and Chaos:
    You and I are same in the way that
    We have our own styles that we won't change
    Yours is filled with evil and mine's not
    There is no way I can lose
  • Lampshaded quite well in Star Control II by the Druuge when you're going to fight them to obtain the formerly Utwig-guarded Precursor bomb
    Druuge Captain: (...) We know your soul, young Captain. It is no brighter than ours! We acknowledge our greed. We revel in it. You are the dishonest one! Hiding your shame in shadows, you fabricate justifications, rationales! In the end, we are just the same. (...)
  • In Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, when Jango Fett and his arch-nemesis Montross face down for the final time, Montross says "We are the same, you and I." Fett replies, hilariously, "Now you're just being mean."
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:
  • In The Suffering, Horace compares himself to the protagonist Torque in several scenes, though he often encourages him against becoming too much like him:
    You had a wife, right? Didja love her? How far would you go to make sure she stayed yours? When you get mad, you feel you could kill a man, rip him apart with your bare hands. You ever feel that way? Maybe you're not like me, it's hard to say. Ya gotta fight it. Don't let this place do to you what it did to me.
  • In Super Robot Wars 30, if you have Ryusei Date confront Alexis Kerib during the SSSS.GRIDMAN finale mission, Alexis will claim that the two of them are not so different — beings from another world who are trying to impose their will on this world. Ryusei shoves that back, telling him that all Alexis does is just wanton destruction while he and his SRX teammates might be from another world, they consider this world home and they will defend it from people like Alexis.
  • Between members of the party in Tears to Tiara 2. When discussing the prospects of an alliance with Qart Hadast, Monomachus calls them cowards for abandoning their previous alliance as soon as the war turned against Hispania, and Hanno not a real friend and family because he just sat back and watched Hasdrubal die. Enneads reminds him that they, loyal subordinates, also sat back and watched him die.
  • In Theta vs Pi 7 King Pi uses this trope word for word, claiming that he used to be in the same position Theta is now. In his case, he doesn't do it to win Theta over to his side, but to warn Theta about ending up like him.
  • Natla in the Anniversary edition of Tomb Raider pulls this trope on Lara Croft during the final boss fight. She tries to mess with Lara's mind saying how Lara is obsessive and selfish like she is and that trying to save the world is just an attempt to redeem herself and that in reality, her heart is as black as Natla's. Lara doesn't fall for it and proceeds to kick her ass.
  • In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Lazaravic calls out Nathan Drake on all the mooks he's killed, saying that it makes Drake no different than he is. In context, the scene is a huge mashup of this trope, Moral Myopia and Selective Condemnation.
  • Undertale: Flowey the Flower tries to push you into accepting his philosophy, "In this world, it's KILL or BE KILLED" and, should you kill him at the end of the neutral path, his last words are a triumphant "I KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU."
  • View from Below: Rose states that she sees a lot of her own trauma in Ash, due to both being social outcasts who lost their loved ones and burned down the churches that mistreated them, which is why she later hesitates to kill him.
  • In The Walking Dead Season 2, Jane feels this way about their own teammate Kenny and the Big Bad of the season William Carver. She tries to warn Clementine about Kenny's deteriorating sanity and increasing violence, and Clementine (who's known him since the day things first went to Hell) defends him and insists he's a good guy — Jane replies that William Carver was probably a good guy once too. In the end Jane pushes Kenny over the edge by lying to him that his child is dead (she wants to prove a point, or something), resulting in him attacking and trying to kill her, and it's up to Clementine to decide whether he's still a good guy or just another William Carver.
  • In Warcraft 3, Mannoroth taunts Grom Hellscream, saying that they are the same. Grom responds by screaming defiance and charging forward to kill him.
    • In the World of Warcraft quest chain required to forge Shadowmourne, the Lich King includes this argument in his Break Them by Talking to you as you steal the souls of your fallen Scourge enemies. Darion Mograine, however, challenges you to kill without being consumed by its power.
    • Grand Magistrix Elisandre is the leader of the Nightborne, who are night elves who sealed themselves away inside Suramar and live off the power of the Nightwell, but submitted to the Burning Legion. She remarks that she thought that the Blood Elves, whose homeland and Sunwell were destroyed during the Scourge invasion of Quel'thalas, forcing them to survive their mana addiction until the Sunwell could be restored, would understand the choice she had to make for her people. Considering that the Blood Elves are allied with the High Elves and Night Elves of the Alliance, who are their enemies in an attempt to help Thalyssra's Nightborne rebels defeat Elisandre, she's mistaken. Thalyssra and her allies do join the Blood Elves in the Horde once all is said and done, though.
    • In a Duskwood quest, when you learn that Stalvan Mistmantle killed his student and her lover when his feelings for her were not reciprocated, his brother Tobias is horrified at this and confronts the now undead Stalvan, who confirms this. Stalvan then suggests that Tobias is feeling what he did- enough rage to kill someone- and Tobias transforms into a Worgen and fights him alongside the player. After Stalvan is defeated, Tobias has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, but when you turn in the quest, he's calmed down and has concluded that it's up to him whether he truly becomes a monster.
    • In a Vol'dun quest, an NPC makes a very weak declaration that because the player killed him to prevent him from killing a camp of peaceful exiles, the player is no better than him and they are "the same".
  • In Warframe, this is one of the things Alad V says of you if you support the Corpus during the Gravidus Dilemma.
  • A rare heroic example comes from Xenoblade Chronicles 1the protagonist, Shulk, rather than giving into Zanza's goading and killing Egil, instead decides to give him a speech about how alike each of them are, pursuing revenge for the loved ones they'd lost, and refusing to let Egil fall prey to his rage. It works.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: These happen quite a lot, as Agnus and Keves' only major difference being that they're on opposite sides of the Forever War is a major plot point. However, Mio saves a particularly cutting one for the Wham Episode. During the tour of the City, Monica explains that while the Lost Numbers are sworn enemies of Moebius, many of civilians of Swordmarch are happy to leave the world below to the wolves as long as they can keep living a peaceful life. Mio indignantly claims that this makes them no different from Moebius themselves, as simply ignoring a status quo involving clone soldiers killing each other pointlessly ad infinitum doesn't give them any moral high ground on the ones benefiting from it. Monica completely agrees, and that's why she's giving Ouroboros all the support she can muster.

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